


Little White Lies

by xerios



Category: Venom (Movie 2018)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-11
Updated: 2018-10-21
Packaged: 2019-07-29 10:15:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 9,176
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16262126
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xerios/pseuds/xerios
Summary: New apartment, new neighbors, new problems.





	1. Iris

Different building, different apartment – not as old or rundown as the previous residence but definitely not new either. He couldn’t afford new, but he could at the very least afford a place that did not have that ‘worst week of my life’ feel to it.

_Worst?_

“Yes, worst,” Eddie muttered, knowing full well the words would be a cause for complaint on the part of his passenger. Sure enough, an irritated growl sounded out at the back of his mind. Shifting his grip on the hand truck, he cast a cautious glance down the access hall – empty for now. “Did you forget we almost died?”

_No._

That response sounded so sullen he couldn’t help but picture the other pouting, the imagery prompting an involuntary chuckle.

_Not funny._

“Kinda is.”

Another grumbled complaint from the back of his head. Eddie managed to fight down any further laughter, though he knew he couldn’t hide his continued amusement from the symbiote. As such, the disgruntlement persisted even as the elevator chimed and the door slid open.  It took several seconds of awkward maneuvering and some unhelpful snickering to actually get in. The hand truck – piled high with a number of worldly possessions salvaged from the old place – only just barely managed to fit.

He had already hit the button for floor five when the footsteps reached his ears. No doubt Venom had heard them well before he had, but had deliberately decided not to warn him. The symbiote could be rather petty whenever it got upset at him for teasing.

The door was sliding shit as he pressed the button to hold it open, taking just long enough to reverse course that he began to wonder if it had even worked. The owner of the footsteps reached the elevator just as it decided to creak back open again. Shifting the hand truck aside as best he could despite the lack of room, Eddie put on an apologetic smile over the lack of space.

He caught a glimpse of ginger curls over the top of some brightly colored reusable shopping bags as the woman shuffled in with a mumbled ‘thank you’. A face full of freckles emerged around the side of the bags after a few seconds of rustling rearrangement, grey-green eyes flicking to check the button panel. Evidently, she was headed to the same floor they were, as she made no attempt to press a button herself or ask him to press one for her. Instead she leaned against the wall, resting an elbow on the side rail.

The door closed without further incident and the elevator groaned upwards.

_Slow._

Eddie nodded shallowly in agreement, hoping the motion wouldn’t be taken as too strange by the elevator’s other passenger. He trained his gaze on the little placard bolted below the button panel, which declared a service date well within the safety range. This did nothing to quell the underlying worry at each and every creak. Usually elevators weren’t a problem, but usually they didn’t make this much noise. The indignant grumbling of Venom at the back of his head didn’t help much either – no matter how much the symbiote insisted, that fear of heights was not going away any time soon.

“It’s the roller guides.”

He glanced back up – the woman had shifted her bags to lean more on the rail as she dug out some keys from the back pocket of her shorts. They were lime green denim and altogether too bright against the black tights beneath them.

“Sorry?”

“The roller guides,” she repeated with a head tilt towards the wall. “The things that go on the track outside the cab. They fixed ‘em a couple months back with ones from a slightly different model, that’s why it’s making a weird noise.”

“That doesn’t sound legal. Or safe.”

A one shouldered shrug was her response as the elevator stopped and the doors slid open once more. Eddie gestured for her to get out first and once the way was clear, proceeded to maneuver the hand truck out – thankfully, despite knocking into the wall a few times, nothing fell off. Once in the hall, he glanced at the number on his key, then at the wall placards to see exactly where he would be going.

Turning to the right, he found himself trailing after the woman and her grocery bags.

Just like the old place, his new apartment ended up being the farthest one on the right. There was a small scuff mark on the corner of the door and one of the numbers was a slightly different font than the other two. In contrast, the door on the left was nearly pristine save for a large neon orange and purple flower stamped right below the peephole. She caught him looking at it, the bit of her face that was visible behind the bags holding an expression daring him to comment. He glanced away quickly and fumbled about for something else to say.

“Oh, uh…I’m Eddie by the way.”

“Iris.”

_Lie._

It was a struggle not to snap back a retort to that particular one word commentary, instead ducking his head and mumbling out a ‘nice to meet you’ before turning back to open his door. Hopefully she’d think the action was made to hide embarrassment rather than a grimace. If she caught it there was no indication – her door was open and shut again by the time he glanced back to check.

Sighing, he pushed his own door open tried to drag the hand truck through – the corner got caught on the frame, necessitating a reorientation before he was able to actually enter his apartment.

“Why’d you say that?”

_She was lying._

“So what?” Eddie asked, kicking the door shut. “Could’ve been a nickname. Could’ve been she just doesn’t wanna give out her name to some random guy she only just met on the elevator. It happens.”

_Don’t like it._

“You don’t have to like it.”

He glanced around the empty front room then back at the pile of stuff awkwardly stacked on the hand truck. It would take a few more trips to empty out the rest from the van he’d rented from the storage place. At least he didn’t have to worry about collecting anything from the motel they’d been camping at the past two weeks – all his clothes were in the two duffel bags set precariously atop this current pile of crap. Once he was done bringing things up from the van, he could return it and head straight to the impound to retrieve what was left of his motorcycle.

_And then food._

“And then food.”

 

* * *

 

Food was a problem.

Despite all arguments to the contrary, it was infeasible to go out every time even the slightest pang of hunger struck them. Skulking around until they came across someone bad enough to warrant becoming a meal a terrible idea took too much time and energy. Hunting had to be rationed, even if it meant at least a week of zero threats of cannibalizing his internal organs – longer if he forked out the money for good chocolate. The threats only worked sometimes, usually when Eddie was feeling worn out from pestering or their appetites aligned.

Moving had been a project in which Venom had shown very minimal interest in, as the symbiote did not particularly care where its host chose to nest so long as it had one. The new fridge, however, held the possibility of additional food supplies. Stocking it was a task – whatever food bought to store in it came with a demand to eat it now instead of later.

“We can’t just sit here and eat all day,” Eddie said, shoving the last bag of fries into the freezer and letting the door fall shut. The frustrated growls at the back of his head were beginning to affect his own mood. “You know this, we’ve talked it out at least a hundred times by now.”

_Why procure food if we are not going to eat it?_

“We are going to eat it. Just not now.”

_Idiotic._

“One of us has to think further than our stomach.”

More grumbles, which he ignored in favor of gathering up the grocery bags now strewn about the kitchen. They had already eaten a party sized serving of tater tots and string cheese upon arriving home from the store. He had theorized that this would keep the complaints to a minimum while he unpacked the other groceries, but that had turned out to astonishingly incorrect.

_Someone is at the door._

Sure enough, a second later there was a knock – light and steady and altogether polite sounding. Eddie crumbled up the last grocery bag and tossed it on the counter, stepping up to peer through the peephole first. That mess of ginger curls looked even more unruly through the lens.

_The liar._

“Shhh.”

The symbiote made an indignant sounding huff at the back of his skull over being shushed, irritation rising as the door was opened. All of it vanished in an instant as a plastic container full of what looked to be brownies was held out in offering. Eddie glanced down at it uncertainly, then back at his new neighbor – there were far more freckles on second glance than he’d ever anticipated.

“Uh…”

“I figured I better preemptively make up for the resident assholes,” she informed him, giving the container a little shake. “I promise there’s nothing in them besides brownie mix and maybe a couple extra chocolate chips.”

_Chocolate._

“Well, I…I do like chocolate,” Eddie said slowly, accepting the proffered Tupperware with a tentative nod. “Thank you.”

“No problem, I always make extra.”

_Eat them now!_

“Extra?”

“Yeah, I bake all the time,” she admitted with a slightly sheepish smile. “It’s a stress thing, but I sometimes wind up with way more than I can eat. Which can be a problem.”

_Why aren’t you eating them?_

“Sounds like a fantastic problem to have.”

“Can’t survive on baked goods alone, unfortunately. I’ll want that container back when you’re done.”

“Of course,” Eddie assured her with a nod, watching as she turned back towards her door. “Thanks again.”

She made a half wave gesture before disappearing into her own apartment, leaving them staring at the flower on the door for a moment. He glanced back down at the brownies, then backed hurriedly into his own apartment and snapped the door shut. Once it was closed he felt Venom start to bubble up, tendrils all a bundle of anticipation at the prospect of chocolate.

“Do not eat the container.”

_Fine._


	2. Daisy

Their neighbor had not been wrong about the resident assholes.

On the third day at the new place he witnessed a travelling screaming match in the lobby, the participants traversing from the front doors to the access hall with the elevator without so much as a glance to see who might be watching. Venom had wanted to eat one of them to dissolve the fight but that demand resulted in an immediate veto and instatement of a brand new rule to their growing list – no eating anyone who lived in the apartment building, no matter how annoying they might be.

Naturally this had led to their own argument, held while they walked to the store to get replacement Tupperware because someone had been a little too zealous in getting every last brownie crumb out of the container. It had taken far longer than he’d expected to convince the symbiote that any bad guys in the building would have to be dealt with by the police rather than them, if only for the sake of keeping its continued existence a secret. The Life Foundation fiasco had resulted in lots of questioning from various agencies and Eddie was not a hundred percent convinced that the lies he’d told to keep this secret had been believed. Keeping any incidents as far from home as possible was going to be the best thing for both of them – an agreement that the symbiote disliked until he’d offered to buy some chocolate.

Eddie did not get to present the new Tupperware that day or even the next, every attempt to knock on the opposite door resulting in silence. Granted, he only got the chance to try twice – things had gotten a lot busier for him now that practically every news organization in the state wanted him to write for them. Being busy meant more money, but it did mean dealing with some grumpiness from the lurker in his head when his work inevitably clashed with Venom’s urges to go prowling for a bigger meal.

They ran into their neighbor a week and a half after move in, after a mildly tense taxi ride with a driver who would not stop talking. They were having a debate over whether to order takeout or devour the last of the fries in the freezer when she came walking up to the building entrance. Eddie held the door open, taking note of the white polo and navy slacks – a sharp contrast to the brighter colors of their first encounter.

“Just get off work?”

“However did you guess?”

“Maybe I’m psychic,” he joked, trailing after her through the lobby. She cast him a sideways glance, eyebrow arched in a way that informed him said joke was definitely overplayed. “Or not. I…uh, have some bad news about your Tupperware.”

“Did your dishwasher melt it?”

“Uh…yes. H-how’d you guess?”

“I actually am psychic.”

_A lie, she’d know of us if she was._

“Oh wow, I’ve never met an actual psychic before,” Eddie declared in mock astonishment, having started to raise a hand up in a shushing motion only to quickly turn it into a chin scratch. “What am I thinking?”

“It’s thirty bucks for a reading.”

“Okay, do you take cash, check, or credit?“

That actually got a laugh, the corners of her lips twitching upwards as they reached the elevator. She poked the call button and shook her head, absently plucking at the strap of her purse – a delightful combination of bright blue and green. The zipper had a metal flower charm dangling from it, clinking against the tag pinned to her shirt.

 The name ‘Daisy’ was etched into the plastic.

_Told you._

“Thought you said your name was Iris.”

“Did I?” she asked, glancing down at the tag. “Hmmm, pretty sure that says Daisy.”

The elevator chimed and the doors slid open before he could formulate a response. At the back of his mind, Eddie could feel Venom bristling with suspicion. He squinted at her as he followed into the elevator, watching with a frown as she pressed the button for their floor.

“That really your name or are you just messing with me? Cause I kinda feel like you’re messing with me.”

“It is absolutely my name.”

_Liar._

“Right.”

_Why is she lying._

Clasping his hands together, Eddie leaned against the side rail as the elevator lurched upwards. In his experience, there were a number of reasons as to why someone would deliberately lie about their name. First instinct was that she truly was messing with him, though that didn’t keep from thinking of other possibilities. Most of the ones that came to mind immediately were bad - from hiding from an asshole ex to something as serious as illegal trafficking. The former could be dealt with easily enough but the latter – given the rule just recently implemented – might be a problem.

“You do broody pretty well, you know.”

“What?”

She didn’t repeat herself, just shaking her head a bit as if the motion would disguise the way her cheeks were tinged. It took half a second more before the realization that his half-hearted attempt at flirting had been received, read, and replied to. The elevator came to a stop before he could muster up something else to say, and so instead an awkward silence ensued as they exited.

_Loser._

“Takes one to know one,” Eddie muttered under his breath, head turned to the side so his words would be harder to catch. This comment was met with a threat to consume his pancreas in such a way as to make his pain receptors scream in agony – a new one to jot down later. He only just remembered as the end of the hall was reached. “Hey, uh…I bought you new Tupperware. To replace the old one.”

“Oh good.”

“I’ll uh…be right back.”

Unlocking his apartment, he shuffled inside to the kitchen to retrieve it from the counter, leaving the door open as he did so. Less than ten seconds and he was delivering the pack of replacement containers into her hands, still bundled together in the cardboard labelling.

“Ooh, triple pack,” she commented with a smile. “Apology accepted.”

“Oh good, cause I will definitely want some more of those brownies.”

_Yes, deliver us more chocolate._

“I’ll keep that in mind the next time I have a midnight baking spree.”

With that she went to her own door, another half wave of farewell cast behind her before disappearing inside. Eddie stared at the flower on the door for a few seconds before retreating back through his own, replaying the walk through the lobby as he kicked the door shut and flicked on the lights.

“I’m not imagining it right, she was flirting back?”

_She was being suspicious._

“Yeah,” he agreed, going straight to the freezer to retrieve the promised fries. “But she was also flirting back.”

_Why do we care? We want to win Anne back._

“That’s not happening.”

_Why not?_

“It’s just not, okay? Don’t get me wrong – I want her back, I do…it’s just…”

_Just what? We like Anne._

“Yeah, and she really really likes Dan. He’s a great guy and I…I kinda fucked up her life a bit, you know?”

_Fucked it up more than a bit, Eddie._

“Thanks for emphasizing that.”

_You’re welcome._

“Point is, even if we don’t like it, Anne’s moved on,” Eddie continued, pulling out a baking tray from the haphazard stack under the counter next to the sink. “And we need to do that too. Move on. It’s…for the best, and we probably should not be flirting with anyone else either.”

_And yet you did._

“Well, I am a dumbass.”


	3. Rose

“Miss Rose, Miss Rose!”

Two kids raced past, no more than eight or nine, the oversized backpacks slung over their shoulders making them look a bit like turtles. They skidded to a stop as few feet from the lobby doors as his neighbor walked in, a coupon flyer from the newspaper dispenser outside in hand.

“Magic trick?” asked one of the kids, a boy with mossy brown hair and a lunch box stamped with pictures of what looked to be various dinosaurs. “Please!”

“Oh, well how can I resist such politeness?”

The kids giggled as she set the flyer aside on the lobby counter, a hand going to pull something out of one of the pockets of her shorts – pastel blue today with opaque white tights beneath. Eddie stopped to watch as she held up a quarter between two fingers, then clapped her hand shut into a fist with the coin tucked inside. Her other hand rose up, a single finger tapping across the knuckles of her fist as she made an expression of exaggerated concentration.

With a flourish, both hands were presented to show that the quarter had vanished.

_It’s still there._

He blinked, squinting slightly – he couldn’t exactly argue when she had already moved on from the disappearing coin trick to pulling that same quarter from behind the dinosaur kid’s ear. The other child – a little girl with hot pink bows tied to her pigtails – demanded to see yet another trick. Several more quarters appeared to join the first, appearing one after another at the command of various hand waves and finger twirls.

Throughout it all, Venom insisted that there was only a single coin.

The symbiote also added in that Eddie was as massively idiotic as the children were if he couldn’t see that. Eventually the coin vanished entirely, to be replaced by two whole dollars – real, according to his cynical other – that were given to the kids just as their bus pulled up outside. They ran off excitedly as she plucked her coupons up off the counter, turning to flash him a smile.

“So…the name’s Rose today?”

“He’s learning!” she gasped in mock surprise, the smile widening into a pleased grin. “Headed out?”

“Yeah…taking my bike into the shop. See if it can be salvaged.”

“That’d be a longshot, saw it parked on the side the other day. Must’ve been a rough spill, huh? What happened?”

“Oh…uh, an SUV,” Eddie replied with a grimace, recalling the pain that had lanced through his body upon impact with the road. The symbiote might have healed him almost immediately afterwards, but the memory of that pain was stamped in his brain forever. “It was not fun.”

_Yes it was. We got to kill those guys right after._

“Lucky to be walking around after that.”

“Lucky, yep…that’s me. Mister Lucky.”

 

* * *

 

His bike turned out to be unfixable – not exactly a surprise, but a bit of a setback as far as transportation went. Fortunately, the shop owner had a used older model in that was awaiting new tires before being put up for sale. They’d haggled for a while, but in the end Eddie had managed to talk the guy down to a reasonable amount, guaranteeing that he’d have new wheels in time for the interview set up that Friday. In the end he was out a couple hundred bucks, but that was better than having to wait while saving up for a brand new one.

The walk back home included a stop at the store to replenish their supply of oven baked potato products. This took much longer than planned, as upon seeing him Missus Chen had insisted on giving him several containers of homemade meals as well as recommendations for a number of herbal appetite suppressants. She had assured him that the gang that had been extorting her had yet to send anyone else around to collect money, though he had made certain she had his number just in case. The look on her face as he left told him that she most likely wouldn’t be making use of it – he didn’t exactly blame her.

Witnessing them eat a person was probably scarier than the guy running the protection racket.

Venom had been extra pleased with the food offerings, demanding to devour it all right there in the shop. Convincing the symbiote to wait had been a chore, though having to carry all the bags back home had made giving in to that demand very tempting.

“I can not stress this enough, but eating plastic is bad,” Eddie muttered as they rode up alone in the elevator. “I am absolutely – one hundred percent – okay with you consuming all of this the minute we shut the apartment door. No problem. Just don’t eat plastic.”

_Ate it before just fine._

I had to buy flower girl new Tupperware because of you.

_Ate clothing on bodies and you didn’t complain._

“I was in shock.”

_My form absorbs it well before it reaches your system, Eddie._

“Don’t care. Don’t eat the containers. I do not want to buy Missus Chen more Tupperware too.”

_Fine._

Three steps out of the elevator on their floor and a smell like fresh baked cookies came wafting down the hall, stalling any sort of pouting from Venom. The symbiote stirred, on alert as they trekked towards their apartment, the scent growing stronger with every step. Tendrils snaked out from the collar of his shirt and reached out towards the door opposite theirs as they reached the end of the hall. Eddie had to shift all the bags to one arm to get his keys out and unlock the apartment, only managing a single step inside before being spun around and propelled in the other direction.

“Okay, fine, I’ll ask her,” he hissed, swatting at one of the inky coils that had unfurled from under his shirt sleeve. “But you have to stop that!”

The tendrils retreated from sight, though not without that brief sensation of irritation that always seemed to occur whenever he reprimanded the other. With a sigh, Eddie knocked on the door, knuckles rapping against the wood just below that obnoxiously bright flower decal. He heard footsteps beyond, leading to a momentary pause that he guess to be her checking out the peephole before opening the door.

His eyes were immediately drawn to the now virulently bright cerulean color of her hair.

_Nothing has changed about her hair, idiot._

“Blue, that is very blue.”

“That is what the box advertised,” she said with an amused smile at his reaction. The smell of cookies was much, much stronger now – he spotted a few trays of them sitting on the counter beyond her shoulder. Despite this, his eyes were drawn back to those curls, trying to figure out just why it was so disconcerting to be seeing that particular color. Her smile had morphed into something much more like a smirk in that scant amount of time. “Let me guess, you smelled cookies?”

“Yes, I uh…did…that is a very bright color, you know.”

“Yeah, I’m not too sure if I like it much but I wanted to try it out.

_You haven’t gone blind, I would notice. How can’t you see it’s not blue?_

“It…is kind of much,” Eddie said somewhat haltingly. He was not about to start arguing with the symbiote right there, even if it was increasingly odd that Venom wasn’t seeing this color shift. It was probably best to change the subject before it caused further irritation. “Uh…so, I have a proposal?”

“Oh?”

He held of the bags full of Chinese food.

“Trade?”

_No, that’s ours!_

“Hmmm, that is very tempting, she said, eyeing the containers with a thoughtful expression. “What you got?”

“That is a good question,” Eddie said, moving to glance through the bags himself. He hadn’t exactly questioned the contents or amount he’d been given. “Looks like…noodles, some lemon-pepper chicken, dumplings…fried rice…”

“Okay, sold.

She waved him inside – he had expected decorations of the floral variety, though no amount of imagination had prepared him for the sheer amount of clashing colors. He spied a couch with throw pillows in the same style as the decal on the door, with a matching blanket hanging over the back of a clearly second hand grey couch. The floor rug was also one giant flower, albeit in a design sporting a larger amount of petals than the rest.

Turning away towards the kitchen, he saw that every available surface seemed to be taken up by baking trays and mixing bowls. On top of the microwave sat two already full containers, each filled with what looked to be a different type of cookie.

“What kind do you like?” I’ve got plain chocolate chip, peanut butter, butterscotch chip, white chocolate chip, or the dreaded triple chocolate chunk.”

_All of them._

“That all sounds delicious, Eddie said, glancing over the trays as he set his bags on an available stool so he could separate out a few containers of fried rice. There was a pair of floral patterned oven mitts sitting on the other stool, most likely shed there when she went to answer the door. “You were not kidding about the baking sprees, were you?”

“Nope!”

This was chirped out as she pulled an extra-large plastic container from one of the cabinets in the center counter, inspecting it a moment before plucking up a spatula. He watched as she scooped up cookies from various trays, creating a variety bucket that had Venom practically boiling at the prospect of devouring them. Maybe the sheer volume of cookies provided would overshadow the fact that he was trading away a portion of their dinner.

_I will not forget and I will not forgive it._

Eddie bit his tongue to stop himself from replying to that one, instead sending a sharp mental reminder of the pile of carrot shreds the symbiote had actually refused to consume from their previous encounters with this particular meal.

_Carrots are disgusting. It does not negate that you are giving away our food.”_

“Trade.”

Eddie held up three of the fried rice containers as the cookies were sealed with a snap. His neighbor grinned again, accepting the food and holding out the baked goods for him to take in return. He tucked the container under his arm as Venom fumed like one conflicted – upset at the loss of a portion of their dinner yet still excited at the knowledge there would be chocolate.

“Trade!” their neighbor echoed happily, taking a peek inside one of the containers. “Ooooh, yes, plenty of egg in this. Love it.”

_Not fair._

“Glad you like,” Eddie said, shuffling backwards toward the door. “I…I’d better get these tater tots in the freezer before they’re ruined.”

_I’d eat them anyway._

“Enjoy the cookies!”

 

* * *

 

The empty cookie tub sat on the coffee table, devoid of crumbs and surprisingly intact. Alongside it sat the smaller containers Missus Chen had given them, all empty of their former contents save one – a tiny mound of carrot shreds sat spat out into the middle of it, just as Eddie had predicted. With a sigh, he ran a hand through his hair and leaned back against the couch to stare up at the ceiling.

Someone three floors below was playing music – he felt a tad sorry for the tenants down there but was glad that those nearest him did not enjoy testing the upper limits of their speakers in the middle of the night. He’d had enough of that at the old place. All in all, the apartments on this floor were actually rather inoffensive, save for the shouty couple at the opposite end of the building.

_Do not forget the liar._

“Ah yes, the blue hair thing. So offensive. How the hell did I see that and not you?”

_I have other means of seeing while dormant…but it is a part of the lies._

“Okay, so what? The blue was an aillusion?”

_Yes, obviously. That is not the point._

“Yeah, but it’s definitely relevant to the conversation,” Eddie argued, fingers tapping idly on the arm of the couch. If – as was insisted – she was controlling these seemingly minor illusions, then it narrowed down the field of possible explanations as to her behavior quite a bit. “…maybe she’s a mutant.”

_So what if she is? She is still lying. Lying can be dangerous Eddie._

“You’re right,” he agreed, nodding despite the action not being truly necessary. Some gestural habits were harder to break than others. “But sometimes people have good reason to lie.”

_Like what?_

“Like not wanting to hurt someone.”

There was a silence in his skull as the symbiote seemed to mull this over, a strange sensation that left him feeling uneasy every time it happened. Not at all like that three day void when he’d thought the other dead and burnt away, but similar enough to fuel the beginnings of a panic.

_Not dead, just thinking._

“I know, I know,” Eddie murmured, brow furrowing slightly. He felt a light tickle around his wrist, glancing down to see a few thin tendrils coiling around his arm from under the sleeve of his shirt – they twined themselves over and around his thumb. “…we holding hands now?”

_Your kind uses this as a sign of affection…and comfort._

“…right.”

_Lying to keep someone from harm is acceptable. We are lying to Anne about our survival to keep her from being hurt, yes?”_

“Yes.”

_Then what harm is the one across the hall trying to keep from us?_

 


	4. Violet

“You know…it’d be nice for once – just once – if I could go get a drink without incident,” Eddie muttered, hands shoved in the pockets of his jacket as he walked down the street. Despite all apologies and a promise to pay for the broken stool, the bartender had banned him from the premises for the remainder of the year. A month and a half was a shorter sentence than some had managed, but understandable given the circumstances – the holiday season brought in enough money that temporary bans of rowdy regulars was a usual thing. He’d just never considered himself to be in that category, but two incidents in under a month apparently got him on the list. “Did you have to do that?”

_He was threatening us._

“He was drunk because it’s a bar and that’s what people like him do in bars – they get drunk, try to…try to act tough and start fights with other drunk people. We are lucky the guy didn’t wanna press charges.”

There was an indignant huff at the back of his mind, followed by the usual feel of the symbiote sulking at being reprimanded.

“Look, remember when I said we are only supposed to hurt bad guys?”

_Yes._

“There’s a difference between being bad and just being stupid,” he explained, pausing at the crosswalk and watching the traffic as it rolled past. “That guy – just being stupid. There’s a lot of stupid people in this world that you gotta learn to just…ignore.”

_He was threatening us._

“He was trying to goad us into a fight and you fell for it. We can’t do that.”

_Can we not defend ourselves?”_

“Yes, we can…but, it all depends on the circumstances. It’s not…look, people do dumb things and you have to just put up with it most of the time. Because they do not know any better but you…we do know better.”

They crossed the street in silence, turning at the next corner to head down another block. Eddie hadn’t exactly had a destination in mind when getting kicked out from the bar, having started walking just to walk. He checked his watch – half past eleven. At least he’d gotten a few drinks in before this fiasco happened.

_We are dangerous._

“That is correct.”

_And because we know this, we must be cautious around those who do not. Even if they are idiots to threaten us._

“Especially, I repeat – ESPECIALLY – if we’re in public,” Eddie added, taking not that the amount of people on the street seemed to have thinned out considerably. “Acting out like that with other people around? Quickest was to be flagged as a nuisance by one of the alphabet soup agencies. And that…that’s not ever fun. You remember that suit dropping by the motel to question us?”

  _I remember you would not let me eat him._

“He was from SHIELD and eating him would’ve been the very worst idea. They’ve been especially on alert for threats since they got reinstated. And we definitely qualify as a threat.”

_Yes we do._

Quiet fell again as they walked, the thought of SHIELD’s reemergence dredging up all the horror stories he’d heard from across the globe concerning the agency and the various super powered individuals they dealt with. Of course, the most high profile one from recent memory was the Sokovia disaster involving the Avengers. It overshadowed a number of smaller incidents, like the one he’d gotten an e-mail on just that morning concerning Pyramid Research Industries. The company had recently restructured and sold off a number of assets, no doubt trying to keep ahead of bad press.

However, a decade long laundry list of ethical violations and rumors about bodies in basements were things that could be made to disappear overnight no matter how much money was thrown at their PR department. Some of the things his contact was alleging almost made the charges against the Life Foundation seem paltry in comparison. If he didn’t already have the Kasady interview to write up, this would have been the story to chase.

Eddie had resolved to look into it once he had finished, though.

Because it was stuck in his head, the similarities to what had led to his own current circumstances – especially the parts about Pyramid procuring a specific class of people for their experiments. Mutants, sure, but ones who had nothing and no one to turn to. It was a huge mess that very few people seemed to care about.

_Trouble._

He glanced up, realizing that the last few minutes of walking had pretty much been autopilot. The trouble in question was easily spotted – well ahead of them on the empty street and walking with a hurriedly nervous sort of gait was a man in a navy blue hoodie. It was not readily apparent why this particular individual had been flagged, but Eddie adjusted his own pace all the same. They reached an alcove where the shadows were particularly deep, letting this target get well ahead of them.

At the corner the hoodie clad man was joined by two friends, one of who definitely had a gun tucked into the pack of his pants, awkwardly covered by his shirt and jacket. The third guy had some kind of bag slung over his shoulder, bulky grey sweatshirt and black bandana distinguishing him from the others. The group lingered in place for a few minutes, discussing in hushed tones their plans for the evening.

_Sounds like a robbery._

Eddie ducked back into the alcove as the one in the navy hoodie glanced back up the street. He could feel Venom stirring just beneath the surface, practically bubbling with anticipation. It was undeniably infectious, making it difficult to resist the urge to just chase them down right then and there. Considering he’d just spent a good chunk of time lecturing the symbiote on its behavior, however, they would have to be a hundred percent certain.

“Are you sure?”

_We are._

“One hundred percent?” he asked despite already knowing what the answer would be – there had been an insistence behind the affirmation that left any arguing he might bring forth as naught but a façade. He peered back out – the group had apparently reached the end of their pre-game pep talk and were now headed across the street. “We catch them in the act.”

_And then we bite their heads off._

“What is it with you and biting off heads?”

_They are delicious._

They watched the group, moving slowly from the current alcove to the next one as the three headed down the road. At the next corner down, Eddie spotted an illuminated sign for one of the dozens of cash advance places dotting this side of town. No doubt that was this group’s intended destination, yet something about the logo left an uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach. He frowned, fingers flexing in a mix of apprehension and frustration as he tried to think of something besides Venom’s burning anticipation of the hunt.

_They are in the building, why are we hesitating?_

“…doesn’t your favorite liar work there?”

There was a silence as the symbiote spun from indignation at the mere idea of applying the term ‘favorite’ to their neighbor, to a form of fury he hadn’t sensed before. It was scalding in its possessiveness, and Eddie found himself propelled from the alcove, coils of darkness wrapping around him without ever breaking stride.

It was a strange yet exhilarating sensation when Venom took control – he could still see and hear and feel all that was going on, yet it all seemed sharply amplified and slowed down all at once.

Like disassociating on a rollercoaster.

They wasted no time in advancing, speed picking up at spotting guns drawn through the plate glass windows at the front of the building. The glass shattered around them as they barrel straight through it and slammed into the man wearing the navy hoodie, knocking him face first into the counter. There was a scream – there was always a scream – as the clerk at the counter tried to back away only to trip over something and tumble from view.

Cursing and gunshots followed from the left, the impact of the bullets absorbed and dispersed by the inky mass of their frame. They spun with a snarl, tendrils snapping out to lash around the hand holding the offending weapon. There was a pop of joints dislocating as the yanked the jacket clad thug towards them. Cursing turned to shrieking and then silence at the tooth laden maw clamping down around the man’s head.

The way the symbiote consumed its prey was incredibly disconcerting – everything broken down and metabolized within seconds of each bite. But the crack of bone under pressure and the transition of flesh into liquid sludge to be absorbed was a sensation etched into the back of the mind forever. Sometimes when they reverted back to Eddie in command the copper tang of blood lingered on their tongue.

The one with the sweater and bandana backed away, emptying his gun into their chest before doing the sensible thing in trying to flee. He didn’t get very far, just a half step from the door before more tendrils caught him by the ankle and dragged him back to be devoured like his friend. That left just one, the navy hoodie they’d spotted to begin with – unconscious and limp in their grasp as they plucked him up from the ground.

“ **ONE MORE SNACK FOR THE ROAD**.”

Satiation of that hunger was a rare occurrence, so ingrained in their system that its absence was cause for pause. Tongue ran slowly over razor edged teeth as they first considered, then reveled in this feeling – satisfaction interrupted by faint whimpering from behind the counter. They turned, clawed fingers grasping the wall as they peered through the now cracked glass barrier above the desk. The clerk whose scream had rung out earlier was hiding beneath it and from the smell wafting up, he had soiled himself.

Venom snarled lowly, scanning the space beyond the counter only to freeze upon spotting a familiar mop of strawberry curls peeking out from behind the back wall. Those grey-green eyes were watching them with the terrified fascination of someone confident in not being spotted – they tilted their head, staring back as a feeling akin to puzzlement curled through them at this boldness. There was a strangeness to the light around her, like it was being deflected in some way around the edges of herself.

Yes, she definitely thought they could not see her.

An amusing thought crossed their minds, claws digging into the wall in preparation to launch themselves through that second glass barrier. Their gaze shifted in doing this, flicking briefly to their reflection in the cracked glass then back to her only to freeze on the name tag pinned to her shirt. Etched into it was yet another different moniker than the ones encountered previously, this one declaring her to be ‘Violet’ for the evening. Frustration bubbled up, accompanied by a snarl that made the one below the counter let out a pathetic sounding whine.

_Time to go._

Their claws drew back from the wall, leaving behind gouges in the plaster as they backed away from the counter. Sirens had begun sounding out in the distance, their gaze still locked on those observing eyes. One last growl left them – not one of a threat but one of irritation at being forced to depart while leaving this particular puzzle unsolved. Glass crunched underfoot as they finally turned, bounding out the broken window and into the dark.

Skirting around the streetlights and into a nearby alley, they scaled the brickwork of a neighboring building, reaching the roof just as three police cars came tearing up the street. Eddie watched them as the symbiote’s form uncurled from his limbs, retreating back beneath his skin. Two cops entered with guns drawn, though he doubted that kept them at ready for very long – the threat was disposed of after all.

More sirens turned in their direction – support vehicles en route, no doubt.

Backing away from the edge of the roof, Eddie turned to scan the opposite side of the building for the ladder leading down to the fire escape. He spotted it a half second later, staring across the roof as the additional sirens drew closer.

“She was invisible, wasn’t she?”

_Yes. Clever tactic. Didn’t work on us._

“Smug much?”

_Now we know how she responds to a threat. It is useful, to know this while she does not know we do._

“For all the suspicion you’ve got aimed at her, you sure did rush in when you thought she was in trouble, Eddie commented, swinging a leg over the edge of the roof and onto the top rung of the ladder. “It’s the freckles, isn’t it?”

_Mottled skin pigmentation is of no relevance, no matter how pleasing._

“Kinda is.”

He had made it down five rungs before he felt the steam boiling up beneath his skin at the symbiote’s indignation – though he caught a faint swirl of embarrassment mixed in as well.

_No._

“Bet they’re in other places too.”

_Absolutely not._


	5. Chrysanthemum

The knock on his apartment door was loud and insistent and altogether too damn early to be anything that Eddie wanted to deal with. He raised his head from the pillow and peered at the alarm clock with the blurry eyes of one who did not get much sleep – it was a full hour before it was supposed to even go off. With a groan, he shoved his face back into the pillow and tried to ignore the sound.

_Want me to get it?_

“No, no, absolutely not,” he responded, pushing himself up and kicking off the sheets. “I am up and awake and answering the door myself, thank you.”

He slowly shuffled out from the bedroom, yawning as the knocking continued in that same insistent manner. Squinting, he peered out the peephole only to curse and quickly start fumbling with the lock. The door The door swung open to a very pissed off looking Anne, who held out what looked to be a folded up tabloid towards him without so much as a word. He glanced down at it, the hesitation resulting in the paper being shoved into his chest as she stepped past him into the apartment.

“Good morning.”

“No,” she snapped, a tightness to her tone that was a huge hint as to how this conversation was going to go. Eddie shut the door, holding the paper to his chest as he turned to face her. That suit still looked great on her, though he knew better than to comment on that just now – not with that expression she was wearing anyways. “You lied to me.”

“Not…not exactly.”

“How long?”

“…how long, what?”

She snatched the paper back, unfolding it to reveal the picture decorating the front page – a blown up black and white still from a security camera. The headline was blocked by her fingers, but the byline hysterics about a demon attack was perfectly legible. He stared at it, trying to formulate a response that wouldn’t get him yelled at.

_Too late for that._

“How long has he been back, Eddie?”

“…that’s a little hard to quantify-“

“Bullshit.”

He felt a rumbled of amusement at the back of his skull as evidently Venom found this predicament to be hilarious.

“Not funny.”

_Kinda is._

“Look, I thought he was gone, I really did,” Eddie started to explain, picking at the hem of his shirt and looking down at the floor to avoid that scowl. “…then, one day I woke up and…it was like he’d never left. And all the food in the hotel mini-fridge was gone. Including the containers.”

_I was hungry._

“And you were going to tell me when?”

“Ideally? Never.”

“You are an asshole, Eddie.”

“Yep.”

“You really weren’t going to tell me?” she asked incredulously, arms folding over her chest with as stern a look as he’d ever seen. The expression was mixed with disappointment, a fact that sent a pang of guilt washing over him. “You nearly died! And in case you forgot, he was eating your organs!”

_Not anymore._

“Not anymore.”

“Because eating people is so much better.”

_Lots better._

He was halfway through a shushing motion before he could stop himself – Anne tilted her head, impatience giving way to concerned curiosity.

“What’s he saying to you?”

Eddie started to answer only to feel that now almost familiar sensation of the symbiote emerging from his skin. Tendrils wound together, forming a face to hover just over his left shoulder, oriented to mimic the angle of Anne’s head tilt.

“ **HELLO ANNE**.”

“That is very creepy, just so you know.”

Venom flashed a pleased grin at this, jagged maw shifting to show off more teeth than necessary.

“So you’re back. And eating people.”

“ **ONLY BAD GUYS**.”

“That makes it so much better.”

“ **WOULD YOU RATHER WE EAT GOOD GUYS**?”

“I’d rather you not eat anyone at all,” Anne stated firmly, that stern expression cementing itself back on her face. “Why do you have to eat people anyways?”

“ **HOW MANY REASONS WOULD YOU LIKE US TO LIST**?”

“Alright, now you’re just being intentionally obtuse,” Eddie muttered, raising a hand to push the floating head back. The symbiote grumbled in complaint, curling around the back of his neck to take up residence above his other shoulder. “It’s…a nutrient thing, I think.”

“And what? You can’t get those nutrients anywhere else?”

“ **CHOCOLATE**.”

“Chocolate?”

“He also likes potato products. It’s just…not always enough and I can’t exactly spend all my money on groceries.”

Anne’s gaze flicked back to the symbiote again, expression slowly morphing into a thoughtful frown. It was the kind of look he remembered seeing on her face when working on case files at home, all determination and focus to get to the root of whatever problem had been presented. He missed that – standing in the kitchen, watching her work.

“Okay, since we all know you’re not going anywhere without some serious intervention – what nutrients do you need?”

“ **WE DO NOT KNOW YOUR WORDS FOR THEM, BECAUSE EDDIE DOES NOT KNOW THEM**.”

“Oh, well, that’s great,” she said in a tone that said the exact opposite. “Fine - We have chocolate and potatoes to go on, that should be enough to figure something out.”

“What are you planning?”

“I am going to work. Afterwards, I will be consulting Dan on the subject of your health.”

“I thought we agreed not to tell Dan-“

“-about the kiss,” Anne finished, looking annoyed. “We agreed not to tell him about that. I will not be leaving him in the dark about your situation because honestly, he is your best bet if something goes wrong.”

“ **NOTHING WILL GO WRONG**.”

“Oh yeah?” Eddie said, glancing sideways at the symbiote still keeping its floating head above his shoulder. “Can you guarantee that? Nope, don’t answer. Anne’s right on this one.”

“ **FINE**.”

It retreated, withdrawing from view and merging back into his skin with an ease that made it seem like it had never been out in the first place. There was no sulking this time though, just a sense of unease at being overruled.

“Okay, I’m not against this but I thought Dan was a surgeon? Cause this seems like a nutritionist thing…”

“Doctor’s network, Eddie,” Anne said, sounding mildly exasperated as she turned to leave. “He knows a nutritionist or two.”

“Oh, okay. Good. You look nice, by the way.”

She threw him a look that told him all he needed to know about how well that compliment was being taken. The door was open and shut before he could apologize for it, the clack of her heels fading down the corridor.

_Sorry._

“Still think we’re getting her back?”

_No._

 

* * *

 

Their neighbor was the alcove with the mailboxes when they went downstairs that afternoon, looking like she had not slept at all. Eddie felt a wave of guilt at that, certain it was due to the previous evening’s incident. He watched her out of the corner of his eye as he opened up his own mailbox, debating whether to comment – concern won out in the end.

“You okay?”

“Hmmm?” she murmured, glancing up as if only just now noticing him. “Oh…yeah. Netflix binge.”

_Liar, we know the truth._

“Must’ve been a good show.”

“Eh, it was a bunch of horror movies. Bad ones.”

“Even better.”

“You look pretty tired yourself,” she remarked with a slight smile. “Late night?”

“Little bit. Got woken up pretty early too, so that didn’t help much.”

“Yeah, I heard the knocking while I was making coffee. Thought it was my door at first. Sounded pretty urgent.”

_She’s prying._

“Heh, yeah, just…just my ex,” Eddie mumbled, pretending to flip through his own mail as nonchalantly as possible – all of it was junk. “We’re still friends, just…you know, sometimes old issues come up.”

“Mmhmm, and always at the most inconvenient of times – I know how that is.”

The implication that she had an ex had Venom stirring – a faint echo of that possessive fury he’d felt from the symbiote last night rising up. Eddie closed his mailbox and moved to toss the junk flyers into the nearby trash bin as a way of creating enough of a space for him to at least whisper.

“What’s wrong?”

_Nothing._

“You jealous?”

_Absurd._

He shook his head, turning to out towards the lobby with the intention of heading back upstairs. That’s when he noticed the legs – she had started walking back towards the elevators ahead of him and this time there were no tights beneath those purple shorts. He had been right about the freckles not being confined to her face.

“You keep staring for much longer and I’ll have to start charging rent.”

“Sorry.”

She didn’t seem too upset by it, shrugging it off as they reached the elevator. The call button was pressed and they stood there, waiting and watching the arrow indicators above the door.

“So…what’s the moniker of the day?” he asked, earning him a brief quizzical look. "It changes every day, right?"

“Saturday is usually Chrys, short for Chrysanthemum.”

“You must really like flowers.”

“Nah, they’re the worst.”

_She is infuriating._

“Not too tired for sarcasm, I see,” Eddie observed, shoving his hands into his pockets and pointedly ignoring that particular statement from the symbiote. Not that Venom was wrong - it was starting to wear on his nerves a bit as well, the whole name changing thing. As frustrating as it was though, he didn't want to scare her off by demanding she cough up a real name. It would be a hell of a lot preferable that she offer it on her own. Even so, he couldn't help but at least ask. “You have a real name under the bouquet or what?”

“Maybe,” she responded with a musical sort of laugh. “Haven’t decided if I like you enough yet.”

“Guess I better work on that, then.”


End file.
